Paint brush cleaner



Nov. 29, 1955 L F. HORVATH PAINT BRUSH CLEANER Filed April 27, 1953 INVENTOR LOUIS F. HORVATH ATTORNEY United States Patent PAINT BRUSH CLEANER Louis F. Horvath, Reading, Pa.

Application April 27, 1953, Serial No. 351,236

1 Claim. (Cl. 15--121.3)

This invention relates to a paint brush cleaner and has for an object to provide a quicker, easier, and more economical way of cleaning paint brushes.

The old method of cleaning paint brushes usually consisted of inserting the soiled brush in cleaning fluid, and then wiping it out by stroking the brush several times over old rags, newspapers, boards, etc., and repeating this process until the brush was clean. This takes time and is messy. This invention eliminates this, and provides a waste container for the used cleaning fluid. This invention also indirectly saves paint brushes by making it easy to clean them and thus eliminate the tendency to put them aside soiled or improperly cleaned, a practice which will readily ruin a brush.

Thus, this invention saves time, saves cleaning fluid, and saves the brushes.

A further object of this invention is to provide a paint brush cleaner wherein a tank is provided for receiving used cleaning liquid squeezed from the soiled paint brush between a pair of freely rotatable rollers with the used cleaning fluid draining from the rollers into the tank.

A further object of this invention is to provide a paint brush cleaning device including a tank which optionally may be readily yet detachably secured to a suitable support, so that it will remain fixed in position while being used, thus leaving ones hands free, one to hold the paint brush cleaned, and the other to operate a handle for squeezing the rollers together on opposite sides of the paint brush, and thus, squeezing the cleaning fluid therefrom.

Briefly, this invention consists of a tank which may be detachably secured to any suitable support, the tank being adapted to receive used cleaning fluid, and having one squeegee roller pivotally secured for free rotation between opposite sides of the tank, while a U-shaped frame is pivotally secured adjacent the end of the tank with a roller thereon, so positioned in the U-shaped frame, that it may be pivoted against the roller axially supported in the tank, and in addition, a handle is secured on the U-shaped frame having the roller thereon so that the roller may be moved toward or away from the roller axially supported in the tank to thus squeeze a paint brush held therebetween, and cause the fluid from the paint brush to drain back into the tank.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, this invention comprises the combination, construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter set forth, claimed and disclosed in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of the paint brush cleaner of this invention.

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of Fig. 1, being on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

There is shown at the paint brush cleaner of this invention consisting of a tank having a bottom wall 11, one end wall 12, and opposite end wall 13 of less height than the first end wall 12, and a pair of opposite side walls 14 and 15, the opposite side walls 14 and 15 having an ice upper edge that is substantially horizontal beginning at the end wall 12 to about the mid-point thereof, and then is slightly bevelled as at 17 from that point until it reaches the other end wall 13.

Attached to one of the side walls, as the side wall 15, for instance, is an anti-tilting angle bracket 18 having a pair of spaced openings therein, whereby the bracket 18 may be placed over a pair of spaced bolts 20 which extend upwardly from a supporting surface 21, and be secured thereto by a pair of wing nuts 22, thus making it easy if desired to removably secure the tank 10 to a supporting surface 21, which of course, may be a work bench or any other convenient supporting surface.

The side walls and end walls are of suflicient depth so that a sizeable quantity of used cleaning liquid or fluid 23' may be received therein, which, when it becomes sufliciently full, may be removed therefrom by merely loosening the wing nuts 22, if fastened, lifting up the tank, and pouring the fluid out.

Extending between the side walls 14 and 15 is a squeegee roller 24 axially supported on a rod 25, which in turn extends between and is secured to the side walls 14 and 15, preferably at about the mid-point thereof.

A similar and second roller 26 is axially supported on a second axle rod 27, the second axle rod 27 being mounted in the ends of the legs 28 of a U-shaped frame 30, which is pivotally supported by means of a rod 31 adjacent the end 12 of the tank 10. The distance between the second axle rod 26 and the pivoting rod 31 is approximately the same as the distance between the first axle rod 25 and the pivoting rod 31. Attached to one of the legs of the U- shaped frame 30 in an upstanding arm 33 on which is supported a handle 34.

In operation, the tank 10 may be suitably secured, if desired, to the supporting surface 21 by tightening the wing bolts 22. The shorter height of the end 13 and the bevelled sides adjacent the same serves two purposes, one to prevent the used cleaning fluid 23 from being accumulated so full that it would stay in continuous contact with the lower roller 24, which may be undesirable, due to the fact that cleaning fluids that dissolve paint may sometimes somewhat attack the material of the roller. The roller 24, of course, is of any suitable material, such as rubber, or other plastic material, preferably one that is at least resistant to the action of the cleaning fluid.

Then, the handle 34 is raised permitting the bristles 35 to be inserted between rollers 24 and 26 as far as the bristle line, then the handle 34 is lowered to squeeze the bristles between the rollers 24 and 26, and to hold pressure thereon while the brush 36 is slowly withdrawn, thus rotating the rollers and squeezing the soiled cleaning liquid or fluid therefrom, which drips into the container. This may be repeated as necessary by dipping the brush into a separate supply of clean fluid between each squeezing, until the brush is clean, whereupon it may be put away until it is needed for use again.

A second feature of having the sides of the tank bevelled is that it permits the handle 34 to be depressed more readily leaving more room for ones hand. When the operation is finished and the brushes have been cleaned, this tank or waste container 10 may then be removed from the support 21, by releasing the wing nuts 22, if secured, so that the waste cleaning fluid therein may be disposed of.

While the device has been shown and the structure described in detail, it is obvious that this invention is not to be considered as being limited to the exact form disclosed, and that changes in detail and construction may be made therein within the scope of what is claimed, without departing from the spirit of this invention.

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this invention, what is claimed is:

A paint brush cleaner comprising a rectangular cleaning liquid. tank open at its top, anti-tilting means on one outer side of said tank for detachably and rigidly securing said tank to a support, if desired, said tank having bottom, side and end walls, a squeegee roller member axially supported for free rotation between two opposite side walls of said tank at a substantial distance from one end wall of said tank, a U-shaped frame pivotally supported adjacent, its bight between said same two opposite side walls and adjacent said same one end wall of said tank, a second squeegee roller axially supported for free rotation between the legs of said U-shaped frame at approximately the same distance from the pivotal connection of said U-shaped member to said tank side walls as said pivotal connection is spaced from said first mentioned squeegee roller, and a handle member secured to one of the legs of said U-shaped frame, said same tank side walls being beveled somewhat from said first mentioned roller to the end wall of said tank opposite said one end wall already mentioned, said side. walls at their junction with said end wall opposite said one end wall being of a height less than the lower surface of said first-mentioned squeeze roller whereby used cleaning fluid may not accumulate in said tank to a level in contact with said rollers and whereby a paint brush may be cleaned by dipping it into a container of clean cleaning liquid, inserting it between said two rollers while spaced apart, then operating said handle to pivot said second roller toward said first roller to squeeze the paint brush as it is withdrawn therebetween, and discharge the used cleaning fluid into said tank.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 232,906 Sabin Oct. 5, 1880 2,043,643 Yenne June 9, 1936 2,483,265 Dalia Sept. 27, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 29,999 Great Britain May 21, 1914 

